Ophelia Crescent Is Burning by Cathal Coughlan

From Cathal Coughlan’s 2006 Foburg album. Written by Cathal Coughlan. No capo.

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INTRO

[Gm7] [F] (x2)

[Cm] [Eb] [F] (x2)

VERSE 1

[Eb] [Abdim] (x2)

[F] [Dm] Trying to become
[Cm] [Dm] Sane you’ll leave us
[Bb] Quick before the [Cm] daybreak ar [Fm] rives [Bb/D] [C/Bb]

[F] [Dm] Marching out the gates
[Cm] [Dm] Austerity’s orphans
[Bb] Donated shoes now [Abmaj7] hastening home

[C7] We hit the river road, single-file as we were [Ebmaj7] told
[Ebmaj7] Very soon we saw ahead one whole hilltop all a [C7] glow
[C7] It’s a beacon, it’s a sign: “Welcome back to human [Ebmaj7] kind”
[Ebmaj7] All our locked-down night-times left behind

CHORUS 1

[Ab] Ophelia Crescent is [Ebmaj7] burning
[Ab] True face of Earth now revealed to [Ebmaj7] you [Cm7] [Abmaj7] [Eb]
[Ab] Don’t be shy of agony or de [Ebmaj7] struction
[F] Come to [Ebmaj7] seek their [F] due [Bb7]

VERSE 2

[F] [Dm] The night goes up in flames
[Cm] [Dm] And screams, crashes, rumbles
[Bb] He left work early, whole [Cm] family [Fm] dead [Bb/D] [C/Bb]

[F] [Dm] He stood on the front door
[Cm] [Dm] Which smouldered in rain light
[Bb] The sirens grew distant – he [Abamj7] tried not to smile

[C7] They quit the phones to eat when the Pacific went to [Ebmaj7] sleep
[Ebmaj7] Watched the dawn from rusty cars clanking down deserted [C7] streets
[C7] He would breathe from petrol-cans til he could not see or [Ebmaj7] stand
[Ebmaj7] And he would live a waking dream as a whole man

CHORUS 2

[Ab] Ophelia Crescent is [Ebmaj7] burning
[Ab] We are delight, unified and [Ebmaj7] pure
[Ab] Did you see their bones illuminate the [Ebmaj7] heavens?
That [F] demon’s [Ebmaj7] hand of [F] yours [Bb7]

VERSE 3

[F9] “So,” said the governor, “just leave the daybooks he [Ab7] re with me
[F9] And clean the basement walls – they wrote some things no [Ab7] one must read”

[Bbmaj7] Time to bribe the [Ebm7] peasants
[Bbmaj7] History was [Ebm7] leavened by an [Ebm] architect’s thumb
Name, anyone new – name anyone?

[C7] We left the river road, daylight came as thunder [Ebmaj7] rolled
[Ebmaj7] Hit the side-streets, each alone, old companions soon out [C7] grown
[C7] Scattered fast like blades of straw, in a gale which cleaves the [Ebmaj7] yawning ocean, new worlds open

CHORUS 3

[Ab] Ophelia Crescent is [Ebmaj7] burning
[Ab] Voices in the flames, muffled and un [Ebmaj7] clear
[Ab] Take some time to work out what they were [Ebmaj7] saying
[F] Desti [Ebmaj7] ny
[F] Desti [Ebmaj7] ny is [F7] here [Bb7]